Blockade of Leningradka

The term of the ultimatum of truckers to the Russian government expired on Thursday, but drivers do not take active actions

Several groups of truckers gathered on Friday, December 4, in the immediate vicinity of the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). The parking lots were blocked by the police from time to time, however, not only law enforcement agencies do not know what to do with the protest of drivers against the Plato road payment system . The truckers themselves do not undertake to say what their spontaneous raid will result in. In recent days, they have admitted that the protest rally can be canceled if President Vladimir Putin, speaking with the annual appeal to the Federal Assembly, will also mention the cancellation of the collection from heavy vehicles. However, Putin did not.

On Friday, about fifty truckers gathered near Moscow - to decide how to hold a previously planned protest. On November 29, the carriers put forward the ultimatum to the authorities: if the Plato road collection system is not canceled until December 3, the next day the truck will arrange a protest promotion on the Moscow Ring Road.

- We even have axes, if that! -shouted in the crowd one of the truckers.

- No, let's be all peaceful with us.

- Peacefully, yes, but there are axes.

We even have axes, if that!

Michael shows a video from the registrar on a laptop. At the intersection, the police car is blocking the entrance to the parking lot.

- I came from Nizhny Novgorod, but the local guys helped me - they blocked the police, and I handed it back and drove to the parking.

Drivers often said that they were not allowed on the parking wagons, and had to go to the place of gathering for cars, and leave trucks in the region. Therefore, there are only about twenty cars for fifty truckers.

In Khimki there is only one of the groups of drivers. The other two are in Lyubertsy and Kashirka. The organization of truckers is seriously lame. Among them, various rumors constantly go. In the morning, they planned to move here regardless of other groups. Then they changed their minds and transferred the action to December 5th. Then the date changed again, and by three o’clock in the afternoon it was decided to move on Sunday, the 6th.

- The guys from Dagestan have not yet pulled up. I heard that two hundred still two hundred cars are coming from the south, ”says one of the drivers.

There are even more solid numbers in social networks:

About 400 fans are pulled to the Moscow Ring Road of the three regions

- Sergey Gulyaev (@gulyaev_s) December 4, 2015

Yesterday we sat in a cafe with the guys to watch the President’s Epistle. From there how beaten came out

Truckers plan to hold a promotion called "Snail" on the Moscow Ring Road - the truck drivers will take two rows on the road and will move with a minimum permitted speed of 20 kilometers per hour. At the same time, they expect that Moscow activists on cars will take the remaining stripes.

- Yesterday we sat in a cafe with the guys to watch the President’s Epistle. From there how the beaten came out. They thought they would still hear us, but no, it didn’t work out, ”says Vladimir Matveev . He is the coordinator of the truckers of the Murmansk region and Karelia. Recently, he and five colleagues managed to get to a meeting with the Minister of Transport in St. Petersburg.

- We sat there, pulled our hands, but they did not let us say the words. And those who were for Plato spoke out. But you yourself look: in the system, according to officials, 600 thousand trucks are registered. And there are one and a half million of them in the country. And on TV they say that we, protesters, are one percent. This is a little of us - the rest simply did not let us, - Vladimir shrugs his hands.

Another driver shows the printout that he took in one of the offices of Plato.

- Here it is said that the truck drove three hundred meters in a day! Tell me, how is it? What truck can travel three hundred meters per day? She walks eight hundred kilometers a day. Nobody answered me in Plato. Another corruption scheme, and it works crookedly.

Suddenly, the movement began at the parking lot - one of the drivers said that the action had already begun.

- Who's on the Moscow Ring Road, tell us what is there and how? - asked Mikhail to the radio.

- They say that ours blocked everything. Everything is worth it, it came back.

The Yandex Traffic Services Service really showed a crimson-red section on the Moscow Ring Road from Dmitrovsky to the Leningradskoye Shosse. In the comments - equally support and condemnation of protesters.

But in the end, the traffic jam was the result of the MKAD overlap by the police. The authorities did not explain the reasons for this.

Special Master of the Moscow Police on the MKAD “accidentally” coincided with the action of the truckers https://t.co/9fyklmy1li pic.twitter.com/se9svj4mrc

- Big City (@bg_ru) December 4, 2015

The mood of the truckers remains enough fighting:

The next wagon was successfully beaten off the police and she drove to the gathering place. Only together we are power! #Anti -Platon #Moscow Pic.twitter.com/NELGBBL4MA

- Antiplaton (@antiplaton_info) December 4, 2015

And here is what Rus2Web reporter from St. Petersburg truckers, coordinator of the Tiger Automobile movement Alexander Rastorguev :

- I just left the St. Petersburg column of cars, which was in the parking lot in the Khimki area at the Auchan supermarket. This column was blocked by the traffic police, they do not allow either to enter or leave. There were about 60 cars there, of which 20 heavy trucks, the rest were cars. In the evening of December 3, they remained to spend the night in the parking lot with Auchan in order to go to the Moscow Ring Road in the morning, but they were blocked and did not give them anywhere. However, cars from other regions that were able to break through to Moscow managed to go to the Moscow Ring Road. Furs began traffic along the ring road, but in the area of the Leningrad highway they were blocked by the movement of police officers. As a result, the trucks stood in four rows. We have information that eight riot police cars drove away in that direction. Large freight tow trucks went there. At the moment, this is all that we know.

Some police officers of the truckers secretly support

Most of the regions of Russia participated in the strike, except, perhaps, the Far East. Only one car was able to drive up from some areas, because the rest were not allowed. The traffic police selected documents for cars from drivers, without them, of course, it was impossible to go. The action was also supported by the truckers of Moscow, they joined it in the course of action. I think that several hundred heavy cars participated in the strike on December 4. Drivers kept contact with each other in a walkie -talkie. All information about what was happening was transmitted on a special long -range wave, and all the strikers knew what was happening.

The police and riot police actively worked on the Moscow Ring Road. But truckers said that some police officers of the truckers secretly support and make it possible to hold a strike. They understand that this depends on their life and well -being too.

Some said that if Plato will work, then the truck will not be needed more, they are ready to go to the Moscow Ring Road and burn the truck

Members of the Trade Union of Drivers, who gathered near the Lyubertsy at a paid parking lot, as far as I know, decided to postpone the action until December 6th. But many truckers were already configured for December 4. They are already tired for several days to sit in the cabs and just wait. Some said that if Plato will work, then the truck will not be needed anymore, they are ready to go to the Moscow Ring Road and burn the truck. Drivers of 60 cars blocked in the parking lot in Khimki are waiting for the traffic police to leave them to leave. Some plan to return back to St. Petersburg, others are going to continue protest promotions.